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Ebay stock was on the rise yesterday following a report from subscription site The
Information that the ecommerce company has been
considering spinning off PayPal as the search for former
President David Marcus' replacement gets underway. Marcus
exited the company in June to be Facebook's VP of messaging
products.

Keith Rabois, a partner with Khosla Ventures, a former PayPal
executive and Square's former COO, told Bloomberg TV he thought it was a good
idea, but if it were up to him, eBay would be rebranded
altogether -- by changing its name to PayPal. "It's a really
simple solution. You could do it in probably 24 hours. A lot
less financial gimmicks involved, you don't have to hire
investment bankers, and various other things, but you get all
the benefit."

He went on to argue that PayPal, purchased by eBay 12 years ago,
is still considered a subsidiary of the company internally, and
that could be a going concern for anyone taking on Marcus's
position. "I don’t think there is any way that long term the
companies stay together…They've missed all the macro trends and
innovation around Bitcoin, Stripe, Stellar, Square, because they
still think of themselves as hostage to the eBay market."

Proponents of PayPal's independence believe that the company
hasn't been able to live up to its potential as a major player in
mobile-payments space, despite its consistent growth and its 150
million users around the world.

The issue came to the surface back in January, when investor Carl
Icahn began agitating for PayPal to spin off from eBay through an
IPO, a campaign that included an open letter to eBay shareholders
that accused board members Marc Andreesseen and Scott Cook and
CEO John Donahoe of conflicts of interest and negligent
leadership, respectively. In April, Icahn withdrew his demand,
the fight ending with the addition of Icahn's pick, David Dorman
to the eBay board.